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Recently, legislation has been introduced in Scotland, which makes it illegal for under-18s to purchase vaping products.
E-cigarette age restrictions mean it will also be illegal for others to purchase these products for under-18s and all shops supplying them are now required to have an age verification policy.
In England, this law came into force on October 1st, 2015 in order to protect young people from becoming addicted to nicotine.
Scotland have followed suit and Public Health Minister Aileen Campbell explained that:
"We know e-cigarettes are almost certainly safer than cigarettes and have a role to help people quit smoking, but we don't believe children should have access to them."
Sheila Duffy, Chief Executive of Action on Smoking and Health (ASH) Scotland, added:
"Nicotine is addictive and as there is some level of health risk associated with using these products, it is right that we keep them out the hands of children."Â
This law may seem unfair to young smokers who genuinely want to buy vaping products to help quit smoking, however young people taking up vaping as a non-smoker is the primary concern they are hoping to prevent.
Any reputable e-cigarette company will market their products towards smokers or vapers, however certain media sources and anti-vaping organisations lead people to believe this is not the case.
Many unreliable stories claim that vaping is a gateway to smoking and a recent study suggests that flavoured e-liquids are aimed at children. We hope that these e-cigarette age restrictions on vaping products will help to prove that e-cigarettes are not aimed at children and consequently reduce the number of scare stories.